Ed Sheeran Interview

AskMen Interview: What's It Like To Be A Rock Star In 2014? Ed Sheeran Knows.

Ed Sheeran’s video for his single “Thinking Out Loud” just dropped, picking up about 2.5 million views in 24 hours. You can see the video above, which consists entirely of Sheeran showing off his ballroom dancing abilities alongside Brittany Cherry, a 20-year-old dancer from California. Sheeran reportedly lost 35 pounds practicing five hours a day with Cherry for the shoot. We had previously spoken to the English singer-songwriter just after he won Best Video of the Year Award at the VMAs in August; the full interview and original article is below. (Also check out our interview with Sheeran’s opening act Rudimental, and the rest of our wild Labor Day Weekend in Vegas.)

Without a doubt, Ed Sheeran is one of music’s biggest stars. I caught up with the redheaded Brit — hot on the heels of his Best Male Video VMA win for Sing — in Las Vegas, before his two sold-out shows at The Cosmopolitan’s Chelsea Theater. While I did get to the bottom of what’s behind the rumored VMA tiff between him and Miley Cyrus, my focus was squarely on Sheeran’s musical stylings and what makes him tick. What I found was a 23-year-old who is refreshingly grounded and is as authentic and honest as his music; essentially, he’s the rock star next door.

If you can manage to get your hands on any tickets to his remaining tour dates, expect to be fully entertained by this one-man juggernaut who walks through his greatest hits, raps and covers the likes of everyone from Britney Spears to Michael Jackson. .

Here now is our unadulterated transcript:

David Morris (DM):Congratulations on your VMA win.

Ed Sheeran (ES): Thank you.

DM: With three Grammy nods already, is all this still exciting?

ES: It's not necessarily more exciting, because I've been to these award shows before, but it's still exciting every time you go, and it's definitely a moment when you do win. I think that this win in particular was a cool moment for me and the director [Emil Nava], because it was the first award he's ever won. His brother is Jake Nava, who did Beyoncé's Crazy In Love and stuff. He's always lived in his brother's shadow, and this is the first time that he's just killing sh*t. I'm really just happy that he's on top and really doing well.

DM: Speaking of Happy, Sing was a collab with Pharrell. What was it like working with him?

ES: Fantastic, man. It was a really, really cool experience. I'm just happy I was able to do it, and for him to give me the opportunity to do it.

DM: Whose idea was it to use puppets in the video?

ES: Emil's, the video director. Originally, I was meant to do all the stuff that the puppet was doing. I just wasn't that comfortable with doing it, so he had a puppet made.

DM: How do you gear up for an award show? What's your routine?

ES: I don't know, really. I'm always doing something before I'm going to them. For instance, I was doing a show the night before this one. I never really think about it too much because it's always in the middle of a lot of things.

DM: Did you have any prepared remarks?

ES: Not so much. You kind of half-prepare a speech in your head, and then you get up there and then you end up saying nothing that was in your head before you went up there. It's a very weird thing. I never do award speeches too well.

DM: There was a little controversy with Miley mouthing something [reports said she mouthed, “Asshole”].

ES: I haven't read too much into it. What I can say is I think she's a fantastic artist. She's got a fantastic voice. I made a comment in the past that I really regret making because I never like being mean. I definitely didn’t intend to do that. If that had any repercussions, I'm sorry. I do think she's a fantastic artist and does great songs. I wish her all the best.

DM: Switching gears a bit. X is your sophomore album, is there a theme or message that you're trying to convey?

ES: The main idea of it was to multiply everything, to have a bigger sound and grow venue size and grow fan base. As for a lyrical theme of the album, it's just diary entries; it's just kind of like three years of my life in songs.

DM: The first single, "Sing," has been massive — how did you select "Don't" to follow it up?

ES: It was always meant to ease out of a big radio song and flow into the next one. "Don't" is the bridge song in between "Sing" and "Thinking Out Loud."

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